IYKYK: How to Create the Perfect Brand Name

When embarking on the journey of naming a new product or company, the task can seem overwhelming. There are countless factors to weigh, from visual aesthetics and tone to the name’s potential connotations and uniqueness. Whether you’re a startup founder or a seasoned marketer, understanding the nuances of this process is crucial. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the essential elements of effective naming and share real-world examples to illustrate these concepts.

Key Takeaways: 

• Balance Functionality and Emotion: A successful name should merge functional aspects with emotional appeal. While it’s important for a name to clearly convey what the product or company does, it should also evoke the right emotions and resonate with your audience on a personal level.

• Research and Differentiate: Thoroughly research your competitive landscape to avoid names that are too similar to existing brands. Aim for a name that stands out and fills a unique niche, making it easier for consumers to remember and identify with your brand.

• Consider Naming Strategies: Decide whether a master brand or niche branding strategy best suits your needs. Master brands offer cohesive identity but can be limiting, while niche names allow for targeted appeal and differentiation in specific market segments.

• Test and Validate: Before finalizing your name, test it with your target audience to gauge their reactions and ensure it communicates the intended message effectively. This validation step is crucial for confirming that the name will perform well in the market.

The Role of Emotional and Aspirational Naming

An effective name often combines functional and emotional elements. Consider the example of Solid Edge, a software platform for CAD/CAM systems. Initially, the company wanted a name that emphasized functionality and reliability. However, the final choice, “Solid Edge,” cleverly merged these functional attributes with an aspirational edge, suggesting innovation and advantage.

• Functional Naming: The word “Solid” conveyed stability and trustworthiness, addressing concerns about the newness of the product.

• Aspirational Naming: “Edge” implied an advantage and cutting-edge technology, appealing to engineers’ desire for innovation and superior performance.

By blending functional and emotional aspects, “Solid Edge” resonated with both the technical and aspirational needs of its users.

Master Brand vs. Niche Branding

When it comes to naming, you might consider whether to use a master brand strategy or a niche branding approach. A master brand strategy involves using the same name across all products (e.g., “Green Garden” for various vegetables). This can be effective for maintaining a cohesive brand identity but may limit the flexibility to target specific niches.

In contrast, niche branding allows for more tailored names that resonate deeply with specific segments of your audience. For example, the “Cherubs” name worked well because it was designed specifically for a small, sweet tomato, differentiating it from the broader “Green Garden” label.

Testing and Validation

Before finalizing a name, it’s crucial to test it with your target audience. Understanding how the name is perceived and whether it effectively communicates the intended message is vital. For “Cherubs,” consumer feedback revealed that people associated the name with a new type of cherry tomato, which was a pleasant surprise and a key factor in its success.

Final Thoughts

Naming is a complex but fascinating process that requires careful consideration of multiple factors, from emotional impact to market positioning. Whether you’re naming a product, a company, or a service, remember that the name is not just a label—it’s a key part of your brand’s identity and strategy.

As you embark on your naming journey, keep these insights in mind:

• Understand your target audience and their emotional triggers.

• Research your competitors to identify opportunities for differentiation.

• Consider the balance between functional and aspirational elements.

• Test and validate your name to ensure it resonates with your audience.

Stay tuned for our next post, where we’ll explore another intriguing naming story from a different industry and share more lessons learned from the naming process. Thank you for reading, and best of luck with your naming endeavors!

Transcription:

Ashley Elliott (00:12):

Well, hello and welcome to naming in an AI Age. This week we’re going to talk about coming up with a great name. There are a lot of things to consider when coming up with a great name. What do you want it to look like, feel like lean into, what’s the vibe, the tone related connotations. Do you want a made up name? Do you want to, a mashup of two words. Do you want a suggestive name? But really what are some of the most important considerations you should think about when coming up with an A mike?

Mike Carr (00:41):

So this is a question that we obviously deal with all the time with clients and have been for almost 40 years now. Let me share with you a journey that one client took us on and we helped ’em a little bit with. So years ago, a software company came to us and cadcam platforms were a new thing. CADCAM stands for Computer Aid Design, computer aid manufacturing. So before cadcam systems engineers, mechanical engineers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, would design things on these huge drafting tables. I mean, these things were massive with pencil and paper and took forever a lot of design work. And so a competitor, a company came along and sort of established the category and they named their product Autodesk, and it was an interesting name at the time because they were automating what engineers did on the desktop. So it was a very functional name.

(01:38):

It spoke exactly to what their tool, their platform did. And our client was Intergraph and they had a new improved platform for the same thing that was faster. It was simpler to use, had more capabilities, and it let engineers be more innovative with less effort. They could sort of push the boundaries and really come up with some cool new designs. So they wanted a name and it was a big deal. If the name didn’t work, the guy I was going to lose his job. The name was such an important part of trying to gain a toehold in this category. We had this 600 pound gorilla, this Autodesk that already owned it. And so we started asking some questions and one of the questions we asked them was, well, what actually does the system deal with What kinds of things? And they talked about HVAC system design and circuit board design and automotive design and all this other stuff.

(02:38):

And the gist was it dealt with physical materials with real material. It wasn’t like virtual stuff, like digital stuff. It was actually you are always designing materials that you would then build something from. And the other thing they talked about was this really was something that was going to give the users an advantage over Autodesk. It was faster, it was more streamlined, had better capabilities, better integrated, and it really let them push the boundaries, the edge, if you will, of new designs. So we thought about, okay, what’s some other ways to go for the physical materials? And one of the words that came out, popped up was solid. And we liked solid because that’s sort of related to what these guys, mostly guys at the time, few gals dealt with in engineering and design work. They’re all solids and also solid sounded like it was a very stable, trusted platform, which is one of their challenges.

(03:38):

They were sort of the newbie. And there’s always this concern that while we’ve never heard of this software platform before, has it been thoroughly tested and everything else? Well, solids sort of addressed that because they had gone, Intergraph had gone through all kinds of testing to make sure that it was bug free as it could be. And then we thought about, okay, and they’re also providing an advantage, and Autodesk is a very functional name, but the home run hit for most names is something that’s more aspirational. It’s more benefit oriented, it’s more emotional. Now they push back on that saying, well, engineers are analytical. They’re very left brain biased. They think logically they’re trained to be critical thinkers. They really aren’t driven by emotions, they’re driven by logical thinking. And we didn’t agree with that, but we didn’t tell ’em that, right? We didn’t say, we don’t think that’s right.

(04:31):

We said, well, but they always pride themselves on their design work. So if we could come up with a name that was a little bit more aspirational and still dealt with the functional, and that’s where Solid Edge really delivered because, and that was the name, we ended up solid and Edge. Edge giving them an advantage because if you’re giving someone an edge, you’re giving them an advantage. You’re giving them a leg up on the competition, you’re giving them a leg up on the old fashioned way of the manual paper and pencil to do a design. And so they like that. Also edge sort of related to that innovation that you make the biggest, coolest improvements on the edge of a design, on the boundaries of a design. So it spoke emotionally to, yeah, I want to create edgy designs. I want a cool innovative designs.

(05:24):

I want a tool that’s proven solid. So in the answer to your question, I think you need to look at not just functional, but emotional and aspirational. So the type of name that more engaging name, whether it’s an engineer, a doctor, an accountant or consumer, we’re all human beings. We’re all driven by emotions. And so if you can come up with a name that sounds cool and it’s going to connect emotionally, man, you’ve got it, you’re going to drive interest and excitement. So that was a big part of it. The style of the name, it ended up being hybrid, solid edge was somewhat functional, but also was emotional. And the other thing I think that’s really important is understanding your target. We really had to talk through and help them share with us the mindset of the engineers, and even internally, the sales, the selling they were going to have to do internally to get their own management to buy into the name.

(06:18):

They were all technical people. And so that understanding of that, we’ve got to make it work for the team inside that they can buy off in the name. And then of course, the ultimate end users and purchasers of the product. So understanding the target and thinking about that more emotional aspirational name or a couple things that I think are important since I’ve given my example on Intergraph. Ashley’s got another example that she’s going to share with you next week on another story, another client, totally different category and a different perspective on which aspects of naming really are important. And it brings a whole different view and some other things to think about. So stay tuned next week when Ashley reveals another story about naming and what we discovered that was a real surprise for us and our client too. Thank you. Bye.